Comments from alps

It was distressing news about the Boyd / Sam Eric being demolished. But I knew that this was going to happen anyway, when I saw the chain link fence on Samson Street, it became real. Center City Philadelphia is on the move, my mind is frozen on the Summer of 1981, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” in 70mm, was playing on the then single Sam Eric screen, after a quick rain shower, when the cool summer air has a sweet smell to it, stopping on Chestnut Street at Hillary’s ice cream parlor for a chocolate chip in a sugar cone. Philadelphia is a political town; why else do all the touring Broadway shows always are performed at the Academy of Music, which is not a theater for plays.

The Boyd was too far from the Avenue of the Arts, Center City, doesn’t want a concert hall on 19th and Chestnut, or a movie theater for that matter. Now there is only one downtown movie house left over from the movie palace era, the CVS drugstore. The Price Theater, the former Kalton/Midtown, was retail before being converted into a theater. To be honest it iPic’s dinner idea went into effect, I properly would not have patronized anyway, people in movie theaters today are annoying enough without ordering a meal when I’m trying to watch a film. Maybe the movie theater era is over; the experience is not worth the aggravation factor at times. Philadelphia still has Hoffman and Henon designed theater left on Broad Street, the Uptown is one, and the neighborhood the Met is in is now being gentrified, there is hope.

Right, Budco never owned the Theater, but Variety used to say, in the 70’s, that Milgram Theaters were the owners when they would report grosses, much to the surprize of Mr. Posal. “Budco like” means that, the theater was twinned by building a wall in the center, and not adjusting the seats, which after nearly 30 years, remain on a slant. I try to avoid films there unless they play in the bigger theater.

This theater did show hard core porn, I guess in 1975, this was around the time I was in high school, my buddy and I saw “Sexual Freedom in Brooklyn” (soft core) and “The Birds and the Beads”(hard core).

The best model for the Boyd Theater would be mix use. Unfortunately, that cannot happen because of the stranglehold that the Academy of Music has on touring Broadway shows. The Academy is the perfect venue for concerts, operas, and the ballet, but a terrible one for plays and musicals. The Boyd cannot stay in the condition it is in any longer. In the last six months it was open, I would refuse to go there, 2001 Harry Potter movie, would be the last I would see of the main auditorium, the horrible bathroom. The teal and yellow orange paint slopped on trim for the Philadelphia movie premiere, worn out carpet, and overzealous security. I don’t get this whole idea of restaurant movie theaters, love or hate Howard Haas, he’s right, once that theater is torn down, it’s gone, gone forever. In New York City, all of the Times Square movie theaters are gone or repurposed, the Boyd Theater would have a better outcome if it were on the Avenue of the Arts.

The best model for the Boyd Theater would be mix use. Unfortunately, that cannot happen because of the stranglehold that the Academy of Music has on touring Broadway shows. The Academy is the perfect venue for concerts, operas, and the ballet, but a terrible one for plays and musicals. The Boyd cannot stay in the condition it is in any longer. In the last six months it was open, I would refuse to go there, 2001 Harry Potter movie, would be the last I would see of the main auditorium, the horrible bathroom. The teal and yellow orange paint slopped on trim for the Philadelphia movie premiere, worn out carpet, and overzealous security. I don’t get this whole idea of restaurant movie theaters, love or hate Howard Haas, he’s right, once that theater is torn down, it’s gone, gone forever. In New York City, all of the Times Square movie theaters are gone or repurposed, the Boyd Theater would have a better outcome if it were on the Avenue of the Arts.

Back in 1977, people from Philadelphia would travel to the Astor Plaza to see STAR WARS in 70mm and Dolby. First movie I saw there was John Ritter in Hero at Large the next, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. Later the first three Indiana Jones movies, said goodby with SPIDER MAN2

Carmike in Voorhees has just raised it’s prices on admission by .25 for day shows, and it’s concessions has gone up as well. Christmas 2013, has too many releases at on time. Management and employees are doing a great job , the best group on young people I experienced working in a theater in a long time. I will say, outstanding!

It is time for this theater to be updated. I am now avoiding this theater unless I have to go there. The bathrooms are too small and hard to get to for ladies, the is one good screen, the seats are broken and you have to turn your head to watch the film because of it’s Budco like twinning in ‘85. Tear it down and rebuild it.

Carmike is putting money into the theatre. I like their stimulus tuesday idea, and their $5.50 shows in the afternoon. I don’t like is their ugly standup posters covering the portraits of the great filmmakers, that partrons never heard of.

October 18, 2013. I went to the open house for the ROXY. I am looking forward to it’s reopening. Full handicap access. It’s smaller in seating and the brick wall lobby is lost due to the new digital projection. One 35mm projector is in the smaller theater. New seats, new bathrooms and consession stand.No more leaking ceilings and musty smells, and the movies will be better, with NYC Film Forum type programing, can’t wait!

Well see, the residents will never allow it. They kept the Ritz from opening on Walnut Street. Chestnut Street at night is full of drunken young people. The Boyd in it’s current state could never be a movie theater again, on the other hand, the building is standing in the way of progress and is becoming an eyesore. How much longer can they keep painting over the “tags”, or keep Homeless people from burning it down? I would hate to see the theater go, but Philadelphia is the most corrupt city outside of Gotham City, it’s politics that all Broadway roadshows are at the Academy of Music, the worse venue. My hope for the Boyd as a better Prince Music Theater, may not ever happen.

I seriously doubt that they would put a multiplex there, what kind of films will it play? The reason why there isn’t a general motion picture theater in the area is because of the element it would attract. Think the Riverview, the now shuttered UA 69th Street, and the former UA Cheltenham 8. I would love to see the Boyd/ Sam Eric reopen. There has been talk of new movie houses before, the most recent, on 18th & Arch. The Ritz, the Ritz couldn’t get a theater to open on Walnut Street. Speaking of the Ritz, there are 12 screens the soon to be reopened Roxy with two more a grand total of 14 screens showing art films. Thirty years ago, I and a friend of mine, went to see Scarface, and we escaped with our lives, in 1990 Christmas Day, someone pulled a gun at The Godfather Part III. The days of general film exhibition in Center City are gone. Film at the Prince was a great experiment, I am grateful for seeing Seven Samurai, Wages of Fear, and “Spanish” Dracula on that big screen. I did go to the Sam Eric in it’s last years, after December 2000, it was too much, the rotting decay, the awful men’s room, the overzealous security kept me out of there. Howard Haas, is passionate about this theater, thank God for him, it pains him as it does me to see this theater still shuttered after 11 years. If this plan goes through, that will be the end of any possibility of seeing a 70mm film or restored movie palace. One of the posters is right, the Academy of Music is not a venue for plays and musicals, the Boyd would be a great mixed venue theater.

Looks like work has stopped for now, was supposed to open last May. This would have been a good venue for the silent Hitchcock 9 film retro. If I were working, I would give more money to get this open.

May 25th is the 30th anniversary of Return of the Jedi at the Sameric 3. People stood on line all night. Management almost caused a riot when they announced the first showing would be on one of the smaller screens.They wised up and showed it on the main screen. Nothing compared to this theater filled to the brim. Later that year Scarface open causing another near riot.